Thank you for coming to speak with Ms. Dente and I this past week during our Parents as Partners meetings.  We always find the information that is shared during those times to be very helpful for us as we are building relationships with our new students.  It is also really nice to have the opportunity to speak to our parents after the children have had a couple of weeks to settle in to their new norm of attending school full time.  As we mentioned in the meeting if there is every any questions or concerns our door is always open and if you can’t make it to the school please send a note, call the office or fire us a quick email. 

We have our Public Transit field trip this Thursday afternoon. We will leave the school as soon as the children are finished their lunches and return by 3pm.  As we will be going rain or shine please send your child dressed for the weather. 

Please visit my this week in Div. 12 tab weekly on this site for reminders/info about our week (basically the same info that I write up on the white board in the window) but with more details.  New blog posts are sent out via email newsletter but edits to blog pages are not.   You will also be receiving subscription email notices from the e-port site.  This is because I am having your parent access passwords created using the emails I collected from you at our meetings.  Once I have everything up and running I will send home a notice with your actual log on ids and passwords.   Please see me if you have any questions. 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Pasqualetto :0) 

The school year is officially under way and there has been a whirlwind of activity in the annex.  The students are having a great time learning the different routines and meeting/making new friends.  So far the favourite activities seem to be centres/playtime with gym and playing outside on the playground not far behind in votes.  

In class we have also started to talk about Terry Fox, what being a hero is and perseverance.  As a school we are participating in our Terry Fox run next week on Thursday and we are raising money for the Terry Fox Foundation.  Any student who brings in a donation will be able to enter their name in a raffle for a Terry Fox T-shirt.  Lets see how much we can raise! 

Thank you for your prompt attention filling out all of the forms that we have been sending home.  It is very important that you check your child’s backpack nightly for their home communication folder to see if anything has been sent home that requires attention.   Thank you to those of you who have already returned the action items.  A list of communication that requires your attention is: 

– Student verification package- please double check/fill out accordingly and return to the classroom asap.  We are Division 12 for when you fill out the forms. 
– October School Meal Order – Order envelopes have been sent home.  If you wish to pay online access has now been set up (if you have difficulty please see Ms. Z in the office). 
– Parents as Partners time request forms were sent home and are due by tomorrow so we can schedule meeting times.  
– PAC BBQ rsvp. You will pay for your meal at the BBQ on Wednesday October 27th but the form is to help the PAC with ordering enough supplies for the event.  I hope to see you all there.  

– September Scholastic order forms will be sent home this week along with a letter explaining the program.  

Welcome Back!!! Stay tuned for exciting info about our new class for the 2017-2018 year. 

Last years Div 11 students will report to their same classroom (A6) for drop off and pick up until they get placed in their new classroom (hopefully by Tuesday September 12).

This years new Kindergarten students should follow the schedule they were provide at the Welcome to K event in June.  On Monday September 11th all K students will report to the small gym to find out where their classroom will be for the week of Sept 11-15 and hopefully the remainder of the year! 

POTATOES !!!

We harvested our SPUDs in Tubs and had such a fun time exploring how potatoes grow and what other creatures and things we could find in the soil. 

We grew 15  Warba potato plants in 3 tubs and at first we didn’t know what the harvest would be like.  Our weather has been so strange the past few months going from cold, to rainy, back to cold, then to super hot and all over again.   Ideally we would have liked to harvest in another week or so but with year end festivities we were running out of time, and the weather cleared up on Wednesday just long enough for us to do the harvest. 

Some of the great things we found during our harvest were: potatoes and lots of them, all different sizes and the seed potatoes that started the whole process.  Bugs – spiders, bugs with lots of legs, bugs with wings and some we didn’t know what they were.  The class were great at picking out all the potatoes no matter how big or small and dusting them off before we packed four ice cream pails full to the brim.    The students then sorted through the dirt to remove any leftover roots, stems and leaves before we put the soil into the new planter that had been built in the front of the school.  Once back in the class we sorted our bounty by size.  Our total was 123 medium/large potatoes and 129 mini potatoes that would have grown into edible ones had we let them grow a bit longer. 

The best part of all was eating the steamed potatoes on Thursday with sour cream, cheese and ketchup as toppings.  Even some of us who aren’t fans enjoyed the delicious food that we grew. 

 

 

What a fun day was had by all!  We had such a great time exploring the different exhibits at Science World.  For some of the class it was only their first or second time riding the Sky Train and to see the looks of wonder on their faces as we travelled around the city was amazing.  The new feature exhibit at Science World is their Made In Canada exhibit and on top of seeing some great innovations that were made in Canada the interactive features were so fun!  lots of kids had a great time designing structures out of Lego, dowels and elastics and some even had a chance to build a bobsled.  As it almost always is the Dinosaurs were a great attraction as was the Our World and Ken Spencer Park exhibits.  Both our class and Div 13 did an amazing job representing our school and I know many of the kids can’t wait until the next time they get to visit.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Spring Break and that the first week back was just as fun.  One of my favourite things to see when we come back from Spring Break is the progress that our potatoes make while we are gone.  Just before we left for Spring Break we planted our Warba seed potatoes even though their sprouts weren’t quite big enough.  I must admit that I had my reservations of what the plants would look like when we came back, but much to my surprise they are appear to be doing just fine.  In fact this year the plants seem to be a much deeper green colour and although they are growing fast they appear stronger than some of the crops my previous classes have grown. 

Pink Shirt Day is this Wednesday February 22nd.  As a class we have been discussing Kindness as a key virtue in our HAWKS acronym and as a school we have been celebrating the entire month of February as Kindness month.   The other day we had a group discussion about what kindness meant to us, how to recognize bullying behavior and what to do if we were being bullied or witnessed someone being a bully.  After our discussion we came up with four statements which were written on pink shirts and the students help decorate the one they felt spoke most loudly to them.

What a great Show! The class along with a few other divisions walked/took the skytrain to go and see Align Entertainment’s presentation of The Little Mermaid at Michael J Fox Theatre. The performance was captivating and many of us were surprised to see that there was an orchestra playing the musical score instead of a soundtrack. There were lots of similarities between the live performance and the movie version that we watched last week and we will be talking more about those similarities and differences next week when we return to school after Family Day. I hope that everyone has a wonderful long weekend and that you will be able to get out to enjoy the beautiful weather with your family and loved ones.

:0) Ms. Pasqualetto